South Korea’s first-ever lunar orbiter Danuri has sent black-and-white photos of the Moon‘s surface and Earth, the national space center said Tuesday. Danuri – a portmanteau of the Korean words for “Moon” and “enjoy” – was launched on a SpaceX rocket from the United States in August 2022 and entered lunar orbit last month. Its
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Italians are notoriously – and understandably – protective of their cuisine, as regular arguments about the correct toppings for pizza or the appropriate pasta to use with a Bolognese ragu will attest. So it was hardly surprising that, when a Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist weighed in with advice about how to cook pasta perfectly which
Tails come in many shapes, strengths, and sizes. The long, thick tail of a kangaroo acts as a third leg. The rabbit’s fluff-butt is used to communicate with other rabbits. The rope-like tail of the hippopotamus flicks their poop far and wide. Many carnivores use their tail to make them more agile on the hunt.
A type of freshwater plankton has become the first organism seen thriving on a diet of viruses, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the US. Viruses are often consumed incidentally by a range wide of organisms, and may even season the diets of certain marine protists. But to
Ancient bones retrieved from an archaeological site in Germany suggest that archaic humans were peeling bears for their skins at least 320,000 years ago. The markings found on phalanx and metatarsal paw bones of a cave bear (Ursus spelaeus or U. deningeri) represent some of the earliest known evidence of this type, and demonstrate one
Look up on a clear sunny day and you will see a blue sky. But is this the true color of the sky? Or is it the only color of the sky? The answers are a little complicated, but they involve the nature of light, atoms and molecules and some quirky parts of Earth’s atmosphere.
The Universe should be humming. Every supernova, every merger between neutron stars or black holes, even rapidly spinning lone neutron stars, could or should be a source of gravitational waves. Event the rapid inflation of space following the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago should have produced its own cascade of gravitational waves. Like a
Storms and other extreme weather events aren’t divided equally between the two halves of our globe. The Southern Hemisphere is roughly 24 percent stormier than the Northern, in fact, for reasons that until now haven’t been all that clear. A new study looking in detail at global storm patterns identifies the heights of mountain ranges
Nothing can go faster than light. It’s a rule of physics woven into the very fabric of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The faster something goes, the closer it gets to its perspective of time freezing to a standstill. Go faster still, and you run into issues of time reversing, messing with notions of causality.
Many parents make it clear that honesty is good while lying is bad, and yet an adult’s responses to their kid’s lies aren’t always consistent. New experiments emphasize this hypocrisy by showing parents can be more judgmental of overtly honest, harshly expressed truth-tellers, than polite, subtle liars. The authors think children can sense the discrepancy.
Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists reported in a fascinating 2021 paper. On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos. This incredible result could help us to better
Guessing the color of the coat of a gray wolf seems like a no-brainer. But the canines, whose habitats are spread across North America and Eurasia, aren’t always actually gray. On the North American continent, specifically, the farther south you go, the more wolves there are with dark, black-hued coats. The phenomenon was unexplained for
Cloaked by the shadows of enchanting Asian woodlands, strange growths can be seen peeking out from between leaf litter like the ghosts of long-dead flowers. The plant’s foliage lacks green pigment having forsaken photosynthesis in favor of an alternative source of nutrients on the forest floor, one stolen from fungi many other plants consider friends
If you’ve ever caught yourself talking to someone and thought, “Gee, I sound just like them”, it might be a sign that you’re engaged in the conversation or the task at hand. The same goes, as a new study shows, for solving puzzles in an immersive virtual game environment. Over the years, researchers have found
Mummification may never have been intended to preserve the bodies of ancient Egyptians after death, experts say, a sharp contrast to the popular understanding of the practice. An increasing number of archaeologists say that the preservative effects of mummification were likely accidental and blame early modern Egyptologists for propagating a misunderstanding based on little evidence.
A new analysis of dust retrieved from the Moon suggests that water bound up in the lunar surface could originate with the Sun. More specifically, it could be the result of bombardment of hydrogen ions from the solar wind, slamming into the lunar surface, interacting with mineral oxides, and bonding with the dislodged oxygen. The
When you stop and think about bubbles, you realize that they’re everywhere: in the dishwasher, on the top of your beer, on the crests of waves, in the saliva between your teeth, and, of course, in bubble gun toys. That means the physics of bubbles are important in all kinds of scenarios. With that in
Scientists are continuing to analyze samples of rock and dirt brought back by China’s Chang’e 5 lunar rover, and the latest results point to new kinds of geology from regions of the Moon that are yet to be discovered and explored. Seven different types of rock were identified among 1.731 kilograms (3.816 pounds) of 2
Back in March of 2021, a star in a galaxy 250 million light-years away was seen having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day indeed. There it was, minding its own business, when it got sucked into the gravity well of a supermassive black hole, and torn to smithereens. We know this because multiple
Throughout the ages, artists have turned to nature for inspiration. Scientists often use such depictions of plants and animals to gain insights into ecosystems as they were in the past. This is, of course, assuming the artist’s intent is to capture the scenery faithfully. A new analysis of a series of 14th century BCE Egyptian
For humans to ever venture out among the stars, we will have to solve some hefty logistical problems. Not the least of these is the travel time involved. Space is so large, and human technology so limited, that the time it would take to travel to another star presents a significant barrier. The Voyager 1
It was August 13, 1945, and the ‘demon core’ was poised, waiting to be unleashed onto a stunned Japan still reeling in fresh chaos from the deadliest attacks anyone had ever seen. A week earlier, ‘Little Boy’ had detonated over Hiroshima, followed swiftly by ‘Fat Man’ in Nagasaki. These were the first and only nuclear
Ordinarily, to measure an object we must interact with it in some way. Whether it’s by a prod or a poke, an echo of sound waves, or a shower of light, it’s near impossible to look without touching. In the world of quantum physics, there are some exceptions to this rule. Researchers from Aalto University
Catastrophic floods, crop-wilting droughts, and record heatwaves this year have shown that climate change warnings are increasingly becoming reality, and this is “just the beginning”, experts say, as international efforts to cut planet-heating emissions founder. The year did see some important progress, with major new legislation, particularly in the United States and Europe, as well
Since the landmark discovery in 1992 of two planets orbiting a star outside of our Solar System, thousands of new worlds have been added to a rapidly growing list of ‘exoplanets’ in the Milky Way galaxy. We’ve learnt many things from this vast catalogue of alien worlds orbiting alien stars. But one small detail stands
In re-examining artifacts from a significant 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial site near Stonehenge in the UK, archaeologists discovered a toolkit for working with gold objects and coatings that hadn’t previously been identified. The site of the find, the Upton Lovell G2a ‘Wessex Culture’ burial area, was excavated more than 200 years ago and is crucial
The constant distraction of social media could be preventing our minds from settling into a deeper, more complete feeling of boredom, according to a new study. Which is a shame, given complete boredom can be fertile grounds for innovation. This ‘profound’ level of boredom is different to the initial, superficial level of tedium we experience
Imagine throwing a baseball. Easy, right? Maybe you’ve already done it a few times. Now imagine throwing a baseball on the Moon. Maybe you’ve seen enough videos of astronauts bouncing around up there to have an idea. Here’s a clearer picture, though: On the Moon you could throw that ball clean over the 186-foot-tall Leaning
Not all galaxies are built alike. There are spectacular, sparkling spirals with graceful arms curling elegantly out into space. There are small, indistinct blobs. There are strange rings with hollow centers or diffuse, dim collections of stars that barely look like a galaxy at all. How galaxies get the way they do is something of
Every once in a while, scientists embark on a study to test some weird and wacky hypothesis that makes you wonder why. But let’s indulge them; it can be fun. A new study from a team of paleontologists and aerospace engineers has simulated a dinosaur‘s tail as it lashes about, all to see whether long-necked
From France to Indonesia and Australia, ancient life is painted across the walls of darkened caves, seemingly motionless silhouettes in earthen colors that echo an earlier time. But in recent years, archaeologists have imagined how these simple images may have captured moving scenes in ways we had perhaps overlooked. Animation, it seems, has its roots
The eyes are often said to be the window to someone’s soul, but the nose could be a backdoor to their bedroom. Experiments have found heterosexual women can actually smell which suitors are available and which are taken. In recent years, the science of human scent has been sniffing up a storm in the lab,
Look deep enough into the darkness of space, you’ll find all manner of shapes that stir the imagination. Keep staring, you’ll quickly learn that our Universe can be so much stranger and more wondrous than anything the human mind can dream of. A recent image released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has captured just
Invasive species have a notorious ability to spread rapidly through unprepared ecosystems, wreaking havoc along their way. The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina), is no exception, expanding its habitat by more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) a year while preying on honeybees, hoverflies and other insects. Nearly 20 years ago, the beefy little stingers – often
How life emerged on Earth from an assortment of non-living molecules is a stubbornly enduring mystery. Experiments can show us how key steps might have happened, but for every leap forward there are confounding dead ends. Water, for instance, seems like an essential component of life from the very start. Yet the process of growing
Can you tell just from a whine, grunt, bleat, or a moo whether a hoofed animal is happy or in distress? If you can, it might be a sign that you are particularly empathetic – or you spend a lot of time around animals. A study led by ethologist Elodie Briefer from the University of
Holiday favorite mistletoe – the kissing plant – hides a secret behind its romantic persona. It’s actually a hemi-parasite that attacks living trees. Phoradendron, a genus of mistletoe often used to decorate doors, aptly translates to Greek for “thief of the tree”. Descended from sandalwood, mistletoe has diversified into over a thousand global species. While
In August 1955, a group of scientists made a funding request for US$13,500 to host a summer workshop at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. The field they proposed to explore was artificial intelligence (AI). While the funding request was humble, the conjecture of the researchers was not: “Every aspect of learning or any other feature of
There’s not enough fresh water to go around on planet Earth, and it’s a problem that’s expected to only worsen in the coming years. To meet growing demand, recycling and restricting our water will only get us so far. Scientists will need to find new sources of this life-sustaining liquid to meet our needs. One
An ancient and well-preserved skeleton – potentially a remnant of a ritual sacrifice practiced over 5,000 years ago – was discovered by archeologists in Denmark. Researchers at ROMU, an organization representing 10 museums in Denmark, had been excavating on the site of a planned housing development in the Egedal Municipality, near Copenhagen. During their survey,
She’s out there somewhere, lurking in a parallel universe of possibilities. All you have to do to summon her into being is type the right prompt into an AI image generator. Like a digital incantation, the words will reveal the eerie face of a middle-aged woman with dead eyes, a vacant stare, and a disturbing
Scientists have discovered markers of Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of three different species of dolphin found deceased, stranded onshore. Evidence of mass cetacean strandings exists from before our own recorded history, yet why dolphins and whales beach themselves in groups is an enduring mystery. While a direct link has been found between naval sonar
Many of us have seen rainbows in the sky once the sun starts shining again after a spell of rain. For us to see a rainbow, the conditions need to be just right. We need some water droplets in the air – like rain or even fog – and we need the Sun to be
It has taken over two decades and one pandemic for paleontologists to unite the fossilized remains of the earliest mammal ancestors and find that their evolution which gave rise to modern humans, may have begun in the Southern Hemisphere – and not in the north as scientists have long thought. The analysis of a small
Tiny, weirdly adorable creatures called tardigrades are one of the toughest organisms on Earth. Tardigrades, which are perhaps better known as water bears because of their plump bodies, belong to an extremely resilient group of microorganisms that can thrive in harsh environments ill-suited for life. In order to survive, they squeeze water from their bodies
The James Webb Space Telescope just gave a spiral galaxy 230 million light-years away a new sparkling glamor shot perfect enough for the Christmas tree. While the galaxy has the rather un-glamorous name of NGC 7469, it’s been a fascinating subject to study. JWST has peered into NGC 7469 as part of a survey to
Researchers have discovered something strange about female southern pied babblers, a small black-and-white bird found in Africa’s dry savannah: the more chicks that they have over the years, the less smart they seem to get. As these birds age, they typically produce more offspring each year. Meanwhile, according to a series of controlled tests conducted
Around 120 million years ago, four-winged dinosaurs roughly the size of crows called Microraptors stalked the ancient woodlands of what is now China. While researchers have studied several Microraptor specimens, there’s still a lot we don’t know about these feathered bird-like creatures – including what and how they ate. Now an incredibly rare fossil has
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